Filmmaker Ari Aster made a big splash with his unsettling domestic horror pic “Hereditary,” and he’s now revealed that he’s quietly written a prequel to the A24 release, but isn’t entirely sure if it’s going to get made. This comes as he’s lined up his next feature, “Scapegoat,” starring Scarlett Johansson (“The Exorcist”), after giving the audience a taste of the surreal with his pandemic-set political Neo-Western “Eddington.”
The writer/director made those comments about his prequel script to his debut movie during a Q&A over The American Cinematheque’s annual Bleak Week (via Gold Derby), which screened his films, as Aster added that “it never feels like the right time” to make that untitled sequel he’s been holding back from the public. “I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster said of the mysterious follow-up project. “It never feels like the right time. It’s a prequel, not a sequel, so I don’t know where this goes.”
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This comes at a very interesting time, with smaller vision-focused original horror films like Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession” blowing up the box office (igniting calls for studios to bankroll smaller original genre projects from new voices, potentially recruiting more talent from the YouTube space), as Aster briefly commented on the success of those new movies. “This is a really interesting month with Curry and Kane. I hadn’t seen Kane’s shorts until ‘Backrooms’ came out. He’s really interesting. He’s 20 years old, and what he’s been doing on Blender, I think, he’s clearly following a vision. I’m thrilled to see that. That’s so exciting.”
Also, he admitted writing earlier versions of “Beau Is Afraid” and “Eddington” before “Hereditary,” as he saw the more horror-centric of the three would be an easier sell, and the other two would be harder to convince someone to bankroll.
In our humble opinion, Aster has been one of the more exciting voices in the modern horror/thriller genre (alongside others dominating such as Zack Cregger, Jordan Peele, and Robert Eggers) with near dreamscape-level scenarios that come off as psychedelic hallucinations or tapping into some primal part of the human fear receptors (“Beau Is Afraid” literally feels like it was pulled from Aster’s nightmares). So, whatever Aster chooses to do with the script (make it, shelve it, or hand it off to some young up-and-comer director he’s discovered), we’ll be down for whatever the endgame is with his prequel (given his track record, we would suspect it will have landed at A24 when the time comes to get cameras rolling).
We didn’t have Aster expanding the world of “Hereditary” on our bingo card, but it’s a welcome surprise, and we hope everything comes together when the stars align.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
